Fox Television Group CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman had a conference call with reporters ahead of the Fox upfront presentation that takes place today, where they were asked about 24: Legacy.

“Legacy, we were so happy with the creative on that show, we think Corey Hawkins did a great job,” said Fox TV chairman Dana Walden. “… as you probably know Corey is on Broadway right now with Six Degrees of Separation … his schedule wouldn’t allow us to consider the show for the fall … it’s another show to talk about.”

We hearing producers will be pitching ways to keep 24 going in the weeks after Fox’s upfront presentation. While Fox say they were happy with the creative, ratings went from the show’s post-Super Bowl presentation of 17.6 million viewers down to about 3.3 million viewers for its finale, so we’d be surprised if there were no major creative changes.

As for 24: Legacy, which averaged a 1.0 during its springtime run, Newman told TVLine they were “so happy with the creative” execution, as well as Corey Hawkins’ job in the lead role. “Replacing Jack Bauer is no easy feat,” he noted.

Hawkins, however, is currently busy with his Tony Award-nominated run in Broadway’s Six Degrees of Separation, and that in part has put a pin in any new season of 24: Legacy, though the thriller remains “very much in mix” at Fox, Newman said.

The future of 24: LEGACY is also up in the air. They believe that star Corey Hawkins did a great job of taking over the lead role in 24, but he’s currently starring on Broadway and his schedule would never have allowed him to return for the fall season. The network also really had no intention of doing consecutive new seasons of 24: LEGACY, Walden said. However, Newman said that they have every intention of discussing the future of 24 when they return to Los Angeles after Upfronts and there is a chance the show could return in the future.

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78 Comments

X

Chlojack

Seems that the network and showrunners are not listening to the concerns of the fan base, millions of whom stopped watching by mid season. The “creative direction” was mostly a rehash of previous seasons, and mostly one dimensional characters. Would be unfortunate if they simply continue without any major creative changes.

Reading between the lines, there’s either going to be a major creative overhaul or they’re going to go the quiet cancellation route based on this BS statement.

They’re blaming Corey’s broadway schedule (which ends July 16) for Legacy not being “considered for the fall” when it was never intended to be a fall series anyway. 24 hasn’t been a fall show since the third season in 2003. Corey’s schedule would absolutely NOT prevent it from being picked up for midseason, yet it hasn’t been. Dana Walden’s statement seems really disingenuous.

And if they were truly “so happy with the creative,” then why not renew it already? They wouldn’t have to delay a decision and have future meetings with Howard Gordon to discuss the future and “get a sense of potential next creative steps” after the upfronts.

X

Yea, it sounds like they want to continue without Corey (at least as the lead) and this is their public way of saying that its a ‘scheduling conflict’ so as not to harm his reputation.

She might mean the Fall shoot.

I’ll never understand why they didn’t make Tony the lead in the first place.
24 with Tony as the lead would have been the Xena to Jack Bauer’s Hercules, which is already a radical comparison because Jack Bauer is already closer to Xena than Hercules, but Tony is that much darker (even closer to Xena).

X

Or perhaps you could look at Eric Carter as Hercules (the do-gooder) and Tony as Xena.
Tony becomes the bigger hit and we see Eric meet up with Tony once in a while.

They should make Tony the lead and saddle him up with some innocent sidekick to contrast his darkness (maybe a bit of Live Free Or Die Hard comparison with the young and innocent Justin Long character attached to the old & weary Bruce Willis character).
I’m thinking a young female essential to the mission and Tony has to escort her.
Think Day 7 with Jack and Renee.

If the show is to continue, obviously FOX would love for Kiefer to find a way in.
Make Jack a Russian insurgent (brainwashed) that’s pretending to help the cast from Legacy and then it turns out he’s the bad guy and the villain of day is Jack Bauer.
Enter Tony Almeida as the hero of the day.

But then whiney bitches would complain that they turned Jack bad, then they’d finally see that Live Another Day was a wonderful ending.

Chlojack

Yeah those are all good points. Filming didn’t start until September last year, so it wouldn’t conflict with Corey’s schedule at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if 24 comes back eventually, but maybe 2-3 years down the line.

Yeah Corey’s schedule excuse is just total nonsense. Even Kiefer is touring with his band until the July timeframe and Designated Survivor is a fall series that premieres in September. I wish reporters would’ve followed up on this and questioned them further.

Big Boss

JD

You’ve been right about your other predictions thus far and I’m sure you’re right about this one.

This interview had that same sort of…feel to it that the “Amazing Spiderman 2” interviews had where they kept stalling before the inevitable cancellation of the third movie. That same sort of “style” is present here. You know it’s bad when they’re going the “kick the can down the road” route.

You know what? Good. I’m honestly tired of the continued abuse of this once great show. It went out with a whimper. I hate that it did but that’s the reality of it. Let it rest in peace already.

Big Boss

Bluetooth Group

its time for a reality check. its over. I agree with 24 Spoilers. the show will go away quietly in the wind with no official cancellation. If they ever bring back 24, better be with 24 episodes. Hire new show runners and writers, and maybe put the show on FX or something. For now I’m just going to go back to pretending that 24 ended with Season 5.

JD

Isn’t it sad that this went from being one of the best shows on TV to a show we’re all rooting for to END? It’s sad but true. More and more, I see just about every 24 fan saying: “They need to end it already”. We never used to feel that way.

But that’s what happens. That’s what happens when you drag a show on for this long, kill most of its principle cast off, disrespect your fans continuously and retread the same damn old (and tired) ground over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

My worst fears and predictions came true: 24 didn’t go out with a bang but with a whimper. It drove itself headlong into the ground. What a shame…

Gerry Mander

Whilst I could – and indeed have – said that ’24’ probably should have ended it’s television run with Joel Surnow still as showrunner, and a gangbusters sixth and final season, followed by a theatrical movie to wrap it up, it’s not Days 6-9 (whatever flaws they may have had) that are the problem, it’s Legacy specifically that’s soiled the bed… if the latter had blown the doors off, we wouldn’t be having this discussion, right?

24

Can’t the second season of Legacy (or just rename it so nobody associates it with Legacy) be about breaking Jack out of a Russian prison? Just bring back Tony and Chloe (Eric doesn’t have to come back) and have the season be about a mission to save Jack. They also don’t have to show Jack until the very final episode when he’s broken out.

Then down the line they can make one final season with Jack, Tony and Chloe.. or simply end it after this if another season never gets to happen. Seeing Jack broken out of prison (especially with Tony and Chloe’s help) would be a far more satisfying conclusion than Jack rotting in prison.

Jackneedstobeback

Bluetooth Group

will never happen for several reasons. Kiefer has said himself he is done playing Jack Bauer. his new show Designated survivor just got picked up for season 2, in the 24 universe Tony hates Jack now and would have no part in helping to rescue Jack, and Tony is now a piece of shit asshole mercenary.

Chlojack

This article claims 24 Legacy was never intended to be done over consecutive seasons, even though it was first announced as a regular, continuing series:

“The network also really had no intention of doing consecutive new seasons of 24: LEGACY, Walden said. However, Newman said that they have every intention of discussing the future of 24 when they return to Los Angeles after Upfronts and there is a chance the show could return in the future.”

Big Boss

Complete crap. If this show had come anywhere close to meeting expectations it would have been renewed months ago.

I just can’t believe how dead the whole fan community has become, even when the season was on. Shows like Better Call Saul and The Leftovers, which the ratings would have you believe pull a fraction of 24’s (already bad) numbers, get Reddit threads with thousands and thousands of replies both during and post-airing; 24 is lucky to manage 300 for the fucking finale. There is absolutely no devoted core audience for this show anymore. Not if this season is the best they can manage, that’s for sure.

Chlojack

Yeah, it’s pretty sad. I check in on the 24 Legacy groups from time to time and there’s never any discussion about Eric Carter or any of the other new cast. People simply don’t care about these new characters at all (and by extension, this show).

Even the handful of people there that actually care enough to fight for the show and send email campaigns seem to be doing it in the hopes of Jack/Tony/Chloe/Kate returning (which is some fantasy wish list idea that isn’t going to happen and completely goes against the entire concept of Legacy which was to introduce an entirely new cast).

But aside from the crappy characters, the writing was so weak with everything being so predictable and telegraphed that there just wasn’t much of anything to discuss or speculate about. The biggest discussion point of this season was “when will Tony show up?” and then “will Tony ever get more than one minute of screen time?”

The writers made an iteration of the show that nobody was asking for, and those of us who did give it a chance ended up being extremely disappointed.

I just can’t muster up any excitement for another installment of this mess. Even after the terrible sixth season I was still excited for the future because the producers were saying all of the right things – acknowledging where they messed up and promising to “reinvent” the show. I don’t understand what the Legacy showrunners (and Fox) are trying to accomplish by refusing to acknowledge any of the fan criticism and claiming they’re so proud of the show creatively. These guys are either completely delusional or lying through their teeth.

Brian

Big Boss

The meme they spout about the “gratifying” fan reaction seems to be entirely based on the Comic-Con screening of the pilot’s first act, which (a) played to a room of 24 fans inclined to be generally positive and (b) was probably the best executed segment of the entire show. Since then there’s been a shocking lack of engagement with the fan base. The reaction been almost unanimously negative (as far as I can tell) and as you said the only thing most people cared about was the one character held over from the original series.

There’s just no indication that they know, or care to know, what people want from this franchise.

Brian

They should just run re-runs of the first 9 seasons; it would get better ratings! Surprisingly, in my discussions with family and friends, many people who are “familiar” with the show have never seen seasons 1-3.

KIEFER — ”Depends. Where does Designated Survivor stand at the upfronts?”

POABC — “I told you before, Kiefer.
I’m in charge, let me take care of it, everything will be fi…”

KIEFER — ”You do not tell me what to do anymore!
Do you understand me?
YOU do not tell me what to do.
I just left the greatest series ever behind on FOX, and I felt nothing.
You know why?…..
Yea….. you know why.
Because that show was dead to me years ago.
I admired ABC.
I looked up to it like an escape, a second chance.
ABC was the safe haven where I wanted to start a new life, and you took advantage of it.”

POABC — ”Kiefer, listen to me….”

KIEFER — ”No!
You are gonna listen to me.
Earlier today… you said that I was cursed.
That any show I ‘Touched’…. ended up dead or canceled.
How dare you.
How… dare you.
The only thing I did, the only thing I have EVER done is what you and people like you have asked of me. Why didn’t you try to renew Designated Survivor?”

POABC — ”I did try.”

KIEFER — ”Not hard enough!
You had the political power.
Was the timing not right?
Was it a little too complicated?
Or was I just an acceptable loss?”

POABC — ”Kiefer, I understand your anger….”

KIEFER — ”Shut up!
You don’t understand a thing about me, but I know you.
I know why you’re angry at me, and it wasn’t because FOX came to me with a sweet deal for another season.
It’s ’cause when you told them not to, they did it anyway.’
You’ll never understand that kind of commitment.
That kind of loyalty.”

POABC — ”You’re right, Kiefer.
It wasn’t fair of me to put all this on you.
To blame you for what happened to this show.
I know the sacrifices you’ve made.
I know this network owes you more than it’ll ever repay.”

KIEFER — ”I’m not interested in what you think this network owes me.
I want Designated Survivor back, and I want it now.
It’s all I’ve got.
You can’t stop me.
In case you’ve forgotten, I’m very good at disappearing…. and returning again.
And if you try canceling this show, I’ll go back to FOX and bring back 24 so hard, I’ll destroy any opponent network on that night, like yours.
Pretty good at that, too.”

POABC — ”Kiefer, simply getting your show back isn’t gonna change who you are… and you can’t walk away from it.
You know that.
You’ve tried it.
Sooner or later you’re gonna get back onto 24, and my network’s gonna pay the price…. like your 24:Legacy did.”

TJ

X

I just mean for prime-time television.
They could really introduce people to 24 who has never seen it before.
Prime-time television is magical for some reason.
I guess everybody is aware that a lot of people are watching prime-time, so they want to watch it too.
Otherwise, no one would care about prime-time and everyone would just watch old shows on DVD or on those OnDemand channels where they can watch anything they want at any time.
I don’t see the point in watching prime-time, myself.
But I don’t jump onto bandwagons as most people do.

Abc

I would rather wait another 5 years or more or even until Jack’s hair turns grey and he decides to do one more run, perhaps working under duress with the Russians against the US, than watch even a single promo or trailer to another Legacy or whatever they want to call it shitfest again. Won’t bother watching whatever they want to do after this. They let their loyal fans down with the trainwreck that was Legacy.

Brian

X

If there’s any shark-jumping, it was in everybody’s beloved Season 5 where Jack became a full-on Rambo figure in The Jack Bauer Power Hour.

I was in disbelief when they announced Tony was coming back and definitely saw it as a new low/high for “Jumping The Shark”, but once they actually had it happen and play out in Day 7, I loved it and it made sense (it wasn’t ridiculous).

Gerry Mander

Don’t forget that Jack was quite literally tortured to death in Day 2 and still manged to save the day (with a collapsed lung to boot!), plus he was a heroin addict suffering severe withdrawals in Day 3 but took some ‘happy pills’ from Ramon Salazar and went on to (again) save the day without breaking into uncontrolled sweats and projectile vomiting… so his getting a mere cracked/broken rib in Day 5 and still managing to kick ass and take names wasn’t too much of a stretch.

’24’ isn’t real-life; it’s a heightened and slightly exaggerated version thereof, so they have a lot of leeway to get away with things that real-life physics would preclude.

People love Day 5 so much because it isn’t only the best overall season of ’24’ but it is, from beginning to end, one of the single best television seasons ever and yet produced for my money… an extraordinary achievement.

I agree about Tony in Day 7, it could have been a shark-jump moment, but they handled it well.

Hank

Whether it’s jumping cars through buildings in that Just Won’t Die Fast series, a herion addict suddenly feeling oh so great with happy pills, McClane swinging off a roof with a hose wrapped around him, the thousands of hours of TV and movies where the bad guys always miss(big yeah right) etc. etc. etc. You’d never be able to just walk away. But if they went all real life, everything would be boring as shows and movies would spend most of their time in hospitals or morgues.

WillAlwaysMissJack

I believed in the beginning and still do now that they were trying to court an entirely new audience for Legacy and weren’t very concerned about the original audience. They probably figured the faithful would give it a chance but there all important ratings would come from the new audience. and they were probably pretty chuffed with themselves that they were throwing the original audience a bone with basically a Tony “walk-on.” It was only when they saw they were not attracting that new audience that they started promoting Tony heavily – and probably regretted that Tony didn’t have a bigger and more integral part in the day’s events. Though I don’t think that would have helped it either.

I lost interest early on in Legacy and hope that Legacy is one and done.

Marlon

and now we wait….one year, two years, three years if……and if they bring it back

Otherwise, consider this:

Jack in a helicopter to the Russians as the end
Tony is a mercenary who will continue working for money with a hot missus named Sidra
Chloe in the US probably with a new look
Logan made it alive and is in a psych ward/prison

X

Jack is at peace.
Tony has a sweet little job with a hot babe at his side.
Chloe is probably, thinking about Jack and devoting her life to helping others.
Logan is a brain-damaged vegetable if he’s even still alive.

Brian

Joshua

Milo

I watched house of cards first then designated survivor after. An I have to say that DS is one of the most stupid series I have seen and compared to HOC it’s like Scary movie vs Schindlers list …what pisses me The most is that kiefer is horrible fit as the president and good honest calm family man like Tom Kirkman and Martin Bohm… he just doesn’t fit to these series… it is like Bruce or Arnold in family comedy

Hank

Milo

I liked season 3 and season 4 too… maybe not as season 1 but I did … as for DS goes I did not like anything there … stupid characters like evil general or evil congressman, primitive and silly dialogues… even more stupid plot with evil VP with evil wife willing to kill herself when discovered… that 2 agents OMG now it is all coming up to me how fucked up DS as a whole is… HOC is like far more intelligent and sophisticated even in its season 4 … you can’t deny that

Hank

Oh yeah, no question it is far superior. Just all the marriage drama in House of Cards bored me to death in those later seasons. DS should have been a limited series, then maybe, big maybe, it would have been decent.

andy

eman

Designated Survivor started off well enough but now it’s a Political fantasy show with preposterous plot twists and scenarios. There is no way it can sustain any modicum of plausibility beyond 1 more season, and season 2 should be shorter because S1 has been a real drag.

andy

Milo

You are so right Andy! You are such a great guy Andy.. I love your posts!!you are THE only true Fan. You are THE guy Andy just like THE Almeida! You know what Andy? Fuck you and fuck your eyebrows! You Justinish fuckface … what the hell are you talking about all the time?!

Patty

Great idea!! All you fanboys can audition for the role of the NEW JACK BAUER!!!

Here’s the casting call:

Are you a fan of Jack Bauer? Now you can live out your ultimate fantasy of being Jack Bauer! Imagine yourself going rogue, chasing and shooting bad guys, torturing terrorists, detonating bombs, screaming dammit, loving woman as only Jack Bauer can. Auditions will take place soon. No experience necessary.

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